The folks at Breitbart report that FBI crime statistics indicate that more Americans are killed with items at hand (hammer, or other blunt instrument) than with rifles.

In 2005, the number of murders committed with a rifle was 445, while the number of murders committed with hammers and clubs was 605. In 2006, the number of murders committed with a rifle was 438, while the number of murders committed with hammers and clubs was 618.
And so the list goes, with the actual numbers changing somewhat from year to year, yet the fact that more people are killed with blunt objects each year remains constant.

For example, in 2011, there was 323 murders committed with a rifle but 496 murders committed with hammers and clubs.

So, it makes little sense to blame guns when they show up at a lesser rate than in crimes than weapons found around the house. The Bureau of Justice Statistics provide this helpful chart which discusses violent crimes in 2009. A year in which only 22% of violent crimes were committed with a weapon;

So I wrote my Senator, Joe Manchin, who ran on his support for guns and I saw nothing reassuring in his letter to me about the fate of guns in our society. Statistics won’t change their minds – they want to appear as if they’re “doing something” not actually accomplish anything. No amount of evidence that contradicts their goal of disarming law-abiding Americans will have an effect on their intentions.

ADDED: So when is Congress going to address the problem of fully automatic scary-looking assault hammers?

“No amount of evidence that contradicts their goal of disarming law-abiding Americans will have an effect on their intentions.”

That’s correct. I am constantly saying that the left has voluntarily disarmed. Their goal is to disarm all of us, piecemeal–until a Supreme Court has the magic number of lefties to pronounce the 2nd amendment defunct as it applies to civilians. Once these truths are widely recognized, we can all cease relyiance on facts and rationality in our arguments because they truly are irrelevant in this rights battle. The lefties in Illinois are presently mapping the route the left wants to travel nationally: an end to all private possession of firearms.

I’m writing my Congresscritter (Carol Shea-Porter, or as I call her, Clueless Che-Pelosi) and urging her not to support any sort of gun ban.

It’ll be a futile gesture, mind you, and any response I get will no doubt be several months delayed and talk about car bombs and rocket launchers, as did the last time I wrote her in 2010 about a proposed gun control bill.

To say this woman is dumber than a bag of hammers would be insulting to the hammers.

Since researching the “Stand Your Ground” law effects, after the Treyvon case, I’ve been particularly frustrated that Chicago rape statistics, and hence overall violent crime rates in Chicago are unreported at the FBI.

The basis is that Chicago won’t play by the rules in reporting of rapes there. It’s a convenient hole in the FBI UCR.

Why would rape statistics be important in the gun debate? Because most rapes are not committed with the use of a weapon, hence if the potential victim is armed, it has a particularly de-motivational impact on the criminal.

In Florida, for example, rapes went down by 20% (if memory serves) in the years following the passage of the Stand Your Ground law.

In Illinois, Chicago (population 2.7 Million) accounts for 36.4% of all crime in the state and Cook County accounted for 53.3% of crimes.
In Chicago (2008), there were 1,594 rapes, a rate of 56.2/100,000 bringing the overall violent crime rate for the city to 1,233.6/100,000
In Contrast, the Tampa, FL metropolitan area (with a similiar sized population: 2.8 Million) had a violent crime rate of 435.2/100,000 and rape rate of 24.4/100,000 and a total of 687 reported rapes.

@8 An inconvenient truth for the anti-gun crowd is the simple application of physics such as you point out in your post. I am about 6″4″/250lbs, even at my old age I can still lift far more than I weigh. Very few 5’5″ women without a handgun can stop someone my size from doing whatever the hell I want to them….the ability to apply a few ounces of lead with a high kinetic energy potential stops someone my size immediately. Making the 5’5″ smaller/weaker individual indeed my equal.

These sons of b1tches would disarm you to guarantee you are more likely to be victimized, that way they can raise your tax rate to about 40-50% and hire enough cops to station two of them within a block of most of us….that’s how you control/pacify a population. Disarm them and create a police state to “protect” them…

I’m not much interested in that kind of nation. I’ve been to more than a few of them and can’t stand the smell…

“So I wrote my Senator, Joe Manchin, who ran on his support for guns and I saw nothing reassuring in his letter to me about the fate of guns in our society.” Unless you are a big-bucks donor, you’ll never get anything more than a generic, vanilla response. When I write to the critters nowadys, I tell them to save the response but note my message.

VOV/#9: Precisely, the point: firearms equalize the field, and there is no way to hire enough LE to actually prevent crime. That’s not their job anyway. Their job is to catch the criminals that ALREADY committed the crime (which isn’t happening in Chicago).

As to schools and society, it is time to return to the system that worked: schools should teach subjects (Math, English, Science, History) while parents and religion should teach morals (10 Commandmants, ettiquette, don’t bully, etc.)

And end “zero tolerance. Punishing a fist fight (expulsion) with the same punishment a as gun fight, means the kid might as well go to the max. Expelling a student for giving out an aspirin with the same punishment as dealing cocaine is just downright asanine.

Get the unions out of the schools. There is nothing “about the kids” involved in closing down schools for a strike to gain more pay and benefits.

Return to the principles of Responsibility for one’s own actions and their results. Teach the Responsibility of educating yourself on the issues and candidates, before exercising the RIGHT to vote. Teach the Constitution, what it means, and why it was written.

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About thisainthell

We are all military combat veterans and we write primarily from that perspective. Everyone who writes here has a Combat Infantry Badge, a Combat Medic Badge, a Combat Action Badge or a Combat Action Ribbon. We write about issues that matter to combat veterans..read more »